The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Who Are You Sleeping With?

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

Lots on the program today starting with the explosion in the use of sleep apps because of the pandemic.  But also we ask my old friend and former Washington correspondent Rob Russo to help us understand whether it will ever be possible for the US Congress to bring Donald Trump to account for what he did or didn't do on last year's insurrection day.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. Who are you sleeping with? Bet I've got your attention now. We'll be back in a moment. And hello there. Welcome to Tuesday. Peter Mansbridge in Stratford, Ontario today. You know, a number of times in the past week, we've talked about the issue of sleeping and how to get a better sleep. And are you getting enough sleep? And that's been kind of a constant story over the last couple of years, because a lot of people, and myself included in that list, have had sleep issues during the pandemic. You know,

you worry about your friends, you worry about your family, you worry about yourself because of the pandemic. And as a result, those thoughts are, you know, front and center too often in your mind when you go to bed. And as a result, you don't fall asleep fast or you wake up during the night and you're not getting the kind of hours of sleep you should get. You know, generally it's assumed you should get, I don't know, somewhere between six and a half and eight and a half hours of sleep as an adult.

Longer, of course, as you're a kid. Well, what to do about trying to get better sleep? If you're like me, you've probably tried all the different, you know, I was going to say drugs. Well, in some cases, they're drugs. They're prescription drugs. In other cases, they're just on the shelves. They don't work for me.

I've tried them over time. Don't work for me. I've tried to put down my mobile device and not look at it. Those bright lights of the screen are not good for you at night, they say. That hasn't worked. The one area I haven't tried is the area that has the big feature piece in the New York Times the other day. It's headlined, Once Upon a Time, Bedtime Stories Were Just for Kids. Well, no longer. They're still for kids and they were great for kids.

But you take that simple theory that a bedtime story allows our kids to sleep better. Why wouldn't a bedtime story allow us to sleep better and so there's become this booming business in bedtime story apps the calm app it's called calm c--L-M, has more than 200 options. They're called sleep stories, which have been listened to over, get this, 450 million times. That's according to the company, of course. The Breathe app has over 100 stories in its catalog and is introducing one new bedtime story a week to keep up with demand. For Hatch, a customizable sleep system with an accompanying app, bedtime stories are starting to outperform their typical sleep content,

like guided meditations and soundscapes. All this in this piece in the New York Times by Hilary Richard. So why do they work? Well, according to Dr. Christine Wan, who's an associate professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine and the medical director of the Yale Center for Sleep Medicine, she says a story more so than music or background noises, is more likely to force the stubborn mind's attention away

from whatever is causing emotional distress. Okay? So that's why these things, these sleep time apps, are doing so well. So which are the ones that do the best? Apparently, the ones that do the best are travel stories. They tend to be the most popular, especially train journeys, says Hillary Richard in the New York Times. Their descriptive detail, sense of place, existence in the present moment,

and the occasional educational components help many listeners get out of their heads. Since the pandemic started, travel bedtime stories have been appearing or have been appeasing many, many people. You know, those trains, I love the sound of the trains hitting the tracks. But I'll have to try that. Maybe that's the secret. There's one other secret, apparently. You know what it is?

What the other secret is for a bedtime story? The voice. The narrator can make or break a story. Cadence, tone, and energy matter. Listeners like to repeat bedtime stories, so there has to be a perceived connection and an element of dependability, which can be hard to quantify.

This is why many of the classics do so well. When Breathe, that app we talked about, introduced a retelling of Cinderella, it became their highest performing track back in October. Hatch also prioritized nostalgia in its library, commissioning titles like The Velveteen Rabbit and Peter Pan. Peter Pan and Wendy.

Yeah, I tell you, the voice. That's why I get a kick out of some of the some of the letters that come in from you listeners of the bridge suggest you know because people listen to the bridge at different times some on their walk some at work and some at night before they go to bed. And I've had more than a few letters say, oh, your voice is so calming. I fall asleep listening to the bridge. Well, you know, that's not the idea of the bridge. It's not supposed to be a sleep app. And I used to get that too when I was doing the National.

People said, oh, it's the last thing that I do. I'm in bed, I turn on the National, and boom, I'm off to sleep. That's not the idea, actually. Nevertheless. So who are you sleeping with? Well, maybe one of these sleep time apps. And it may be a great story. And maybe it does work.

And maybe I should try it. And maybe I will. Okay, so that story is connected to the pandemic. And I'll tell you a couple more that are also connected to the pandemic. There seems to be, and I've heard this a couple of times in the last little while, expect over these next few months, as we watch the Omicron variant peak,

which hopefully is going to be, as we heard from Dr. Lisa Barrett yesterday, will be in the next four to eight weeks. But as that happens, there's a suggestion on the part of a lot of the experts that we're going to start to see a movement away from government-imposed restrictions to more reliance on individuals

taking their defense against COVID on their own, making the decisions about vaccines and boosters and masks and all of that. So a movement away from government to individuals, as we have got so many more tools in our toolbox than we had a year ago. Well, let's hope that's the case. But every time you hear something like that, you also see at the same time, obviously I have a particular interest

in what's going on in Scotland because I go to Scotland a lot and we have a small place there that we stay in. But Nicola Sturgeon, who's the Scottish First Minister, said yesterday, Scots will likely have to wear face coverings in public places for years to come. That's her long-term strategy for living with COVID.

Masks for years to come. This is at a time when numbers are starting to go down in the UK, more so in England than in Scotland so far. But nevertheless, they are seeing the beginning of a downward trend, which once again indicates that if things are similar it should be happening here once again and that's kind of next two three four to eight weeks period here's another new fact on and this won't surprise you the absenteeism rate this is from bloom News, and it's just based in the States, but I imagine there's some similarity to here, especially through this Omicron wave. Bloomberg's latest survey shows upwards of 5 million workers were forced to stay home last week. 5 million.

And that the Omicron-related absenteeism could cause a $48 billion hit to the UK economy. So when they've been crunching the numbers in the UK on absenteeism, that's what it shows. They haven't done those numbers yet in the States because they haven't got through this worst period. But you can be sure that when they do, that $48 billion figure is going to be pale in comparison to what the American one is likely to be. A lot of this stuff is based on the projections of economists, right? And you know the old saying about economists, you want to debate, get two economists in the room, because they're always going to disagree.

And that, you know, I've always found that, I've got to tell you, through my years of doing various, you know, discussions and debates on television and on radio and on this program. It's not hard to get economists to debate. However, this is interesting. The Economist is reporting this week on a new paper by Doris Guide-Stevenson and Alvaro La Parra-Jerez. They're from Weber State University. They find that economists are agreeing with each other more on a number of policy-related questions

that have come up as a result of the pandemic. The results suggest that the extent of consensus has risen significantly. Economists were in strong agreement on about a third of the propositions in the latest wave, compared with around 15% in 2011 and less than 10% in 1990. Respondents were more united on their diagnosis of economic problems. And strikingly, more of them were convinced of the need for muscular policy. Inequality was a growing concern.

Climate change was another chief concern. So there you go, economists agreeing with each other. Now, it's not 100%. It's not even 50%. But at a third, it's a lot better than 10% or 15%. A couple of other points before we get to our main feature for this day. I haven't even told you what that is yet. But I will in a moment. But first of all, you know,

like every week we try to tell you something about electric vehicles because the landscape has changed on that. You only need to watch commercials to know that. So this is in the Wall Street Journal. Automakers plan to launch dozens of new electric models over the next two years in a range of different styles and at varying price points, according to analysts at the Bank of America. The arrival of these EVs shifts the pressure on car companies from developing them to convincing consumers to buy them. We're at that point, that inflection point, if you will.

I think I bought my last gas-powered vehicle. I fully expect any vehicles that I buy in the future are going to be electric. Now, I know the hesitation that some people have on batteries and charging and all of that. But every day, that situation gets better. But you're going to have a lot more choice, according to this piece in the Wall Street Journal. And you can see that already.

I mean, every major car manufacturer seems to have an electric vehicle, and they're pushing it hard. That's the focus of their advertising. And here's our climate change story for this day. 2021. The year we just kicked out of our lives, was the fifth warmest year on record per the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The preliminary data from Copernicus

is in line with projections by U.S. climate agencies, such as the NOAA, which has forecast that the year was almost certain to rank as the sixth warmest year in its database, which dates back to the late 19th century. The overall trend consists of a relentless human-driven upward march. Copernicus has found that 21 of the 22 hottest years have come since the year 2000. This is a hot century, man. While NOAA's records show the world's 10 warmest years have all happened since 2005. The early outlook for 2022

is another top 10 warmest year. As you know, or at least as some of you know, who listen to The Bridge with some form of regularity, I was in the Arctic last fall, in August and September, working on a documentary that will air on the CBC in a few months' time. We don't have the actual air date yet, but as soon as we have it, I'll tell you. You know, one part of this documentary is about climate change and Arctic sovereignty and how the North has changed dramatically, continues to change.

I've been doing these documentaries in the Arctic for, you know, for more than, well, almost 20 years. I've been going to the Arctic since the 1960s. So I have some area of limited expertise in this story. And I've seen the dramatic change. There's no question about the change you can witness by being in the Arctic. And it's heading this way. Anyway, another top ten.

Warmest year. Okay. One thing I should mention. Last week. And we'll probably talk more. In the days ahead. Even Bruce was thinking about. We should maybe do some.

Novak Djokovic stuff on Smoke Mirrors and the Truth tomorrow. But when I talked about Novak Djokovic last week, I mentioned how he had more world titles, major titles than anyone else. That was not true. He's tied, as I said, with Roger Federer, and he was hoping the Australian Open, if he gets to play and win it, would put him to 21 and he'd have more than anybody else. The correct way of describing that, as a number of you have pointed out to me, was he would have had more than any other man has in terms of

those major titles. Serena Williams has more than anybody. I think 23 is her count. Alright. Going to take a quick break. When we come back, this has kind of been bugging me right. Going to take a quick break. When we come back, this has kind of been bugging me for the last while, especially last week watching the frequent discussions about the anniversary of January 6th. And we had one of those

discussions right here on Good Talk last week. But what's bugged me is that it's been more than a year, and aside from some minor players in this story, nobody's been charged. So will anybody ever be charged? I'm talking about the top layer, the organizers, those who really made that happen. And that story goes right to the top.

Will anything ever happen on that? So I've reached out to a good friend of mine, somebody who really understands U.S. politics because he was based there for almost a decade as the Washington Bureau Chief for Canadian Press. My good friend Rob Russo. We'll be back with Rob in just a moment. And welcome back.

You're listening to The Bridge right here on SiriusXM Canada, Channel 1677 Canada Talks or on your favorite podcast platform and welcome to you from no matter where you are listening all right is anybody ever going to pay the price for what happened on January 6 2021 in the United States in in Washington, at the Capitol building. The way that whole thing was organized, paid for. And I'm not talking about some of the individuals, hundreds of whom have been charged. I'm talking about the big players who organized it all,

who funded it all. Is anything ever going to happen there? So I decided, well, you know what, I haven't talked to Rob Russo in a while. Rob, a good friend, former Bureau Chief for the CBC in Ottawa, former Bureau Chief for Canadian Press in Ottawa. And before that,

the Canadian Press journalist based in Washington. I think seven or eight years. Covered all kinds of things, including the impeachment of Bill Clinton. So he knows how that town works. At the White House, at the Capitol building, at the Supreme Court.

He's covered it all. And he never loses sight of that story. So I wanted to have this kind of basic discussion with him about this issue of, is anything ever really going to happen? So here we go. My conversation with Rob Russo. Here it is. So it's been more than a year and every few days some breathless report will come out about how somebody's about to testify some senior figure or they've been subpoenaed to testify and then we never find out what they said or for those who never said anything because they didn't react to the subpoena um leaves you kind of wondering about the process and whether we're ever going to find out

what really happened on January 6th last year, who was really behind it, who's accountable or should be accountable. You've seen this process, you've watched it in other times. Is it a process that will actually determine the truth of that day? At best, we can say to be determined. In some instances, it has.

You know, the divided houses come together on the 9-11 Commission, for instance. They did very good work there. Republicans and Democrats appointed an independent commission. They came together. The history has been very, very kind to the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of but history has shown that the Warren Commission got a lot of the important stuff right. So there is history there that shows that they can do it. In this instance, there is a lot suggesting that they're going to run into some real roadblocks, and they already have. I mean, let's look at how many people have been charged 700 people have been charged um 70 people have been convicted all of those people who've been charged and convicted so far are what i would call the people who would know or might have had a role in organizing, mobilizing, funding, provoking the demonstration, none of those people have really appeared before the committee yet.

None of them have been charged, and many of them have refused to turn up. And so there is one exception. Mark Meadows, former chief of staff, has refused to show up. But before he did, he handed over some really embarrassing documents, embarrassing for members of the media in the United States, primarily Fox News hosts, who were found. Thank you. Who were found to have been providing advice to the Trump White House and were found to have been very, very alarmed while the riot was going on. But other than that, other than Meadows' documents, none of those people have managed to appear before the committee and are refusing to do so so far.

So what's different about this time compared with the past ones that you gave us examples for? Is it strictly the kind of the polarization of American politics in the present time to such an extent that republicans are refusing to cooperate on any level outside of the two um liz cheney and uh adam kitzinger the two republicans who are sitting on the on the january 6th committee but aside from those two nothing is happening in terms of republicans and trying to help this committee determine the truth yeah truth is is a relative issue in the united states right

now let's let's look at let's look at what happened on january 6th we don't have to guess you and i and everybody else was watching the television that day, we saw it. We saw it happen. We saw people storm. We saw them go there after then President Trump said, and now go ahead and go on to the Capitol. We saw what happened. We saw it with our own eyes. We saw any neutral observer saw an assault on a democratic process. There is fundamental disagreement as to whether or not democracy was being undermined, or there was an attempt

to undermine democracy. Even though we saw what we saw with our own eyes. People did say that there was an assault on democracy. I'm looking at Mitch McConnell, what he said. There's no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. That's Mitch McConnell a couple of days after January 6th. Mitch McConnell doesn't feel that way anymore. So facts have become fungible uh it's something that didn't happen in the in the investigation in the 9-11 or in the investigation

into john f kennedy's assassination so the very notion of a fact has changed and there's widespread disagreement about what we saw with our own eyes so where does that leave us i mean you know it's it's a year gone by uh and you know people have moved on because of covid and in terms of their their concerns and their focus in terms of what they want out of their out of their government um and yet there's still an expectation, certainly in the media or parts of the media, that something may be able to be accomplished by this committee.

How likely or unlikely is that? If they are going to accomplish anything, they're going to have to do it quickly and they're going to need the help of the Justice Department, it seems. The Justice Department is moving with some dispatch at getting the people who were on the barricades and then inside the building. The Justice Department hasn't yet indicated whether or not it's going to arrest, charge, compel Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows to testify, let alone former President Trump. He's going to be able to fight the seizure of his documents and his communications

during the crucial 187-minute period between when he said, and now go march on the Capitol, and when he issued a statement to say, please go home. We love you now that you've ransacked our House of Representatives, but please go home. So the Justice Department hasn't made a decision on Meadows and on Bannon. They're still pondering that. So there's that. And then there's the reality of the midterm elections if the clock has run out on this if these uh if the committee the select committee

doesn't report let's say by summer um then it looks very very grim and one of the things they're going to report on is how can they prevent this from happening again when i when i look at the future of what's happening in the united states and what could happen and how can they prevent this from happening again when i when i look at the future of what's happening in the united states and what could happen and how they might prevent this from happening again and how votes might be tallied well you know i i look at the current slate of people running in the november elections there's 163 republicans running for statewide office who believe that the election was stoned. They believe what I call the big lie.

And what's now known as the big lie, they call it the big steal. And there are 69 Republican candidates for governor in the United States who believe that. There are 55 Republicans running for the U.S. Senate who believe that. There are 48 candidates, Republican candidates for secretary of state who believe that. They're really important here. If you remember the 2000 election, which was contested, it was the secretary of state there that ultimately tilted that in favor of George Bush the younger and got him time to get a Supreme Court hearing. So these people are going to be the people who determine what happens in the United States, whether or not this can be prevented again, whether or not votes can be tallied in a way that is acceptable to all. And they all believe in Trump's big steel slash big lie.

You know, I'll just end it with this question, and it's about Trump, obviously. You know, there's a lot of brave talk, and you see it on some of the talk shows, and you see many of the different committee spokespeople in terms of members, including the two Republicans, asked it continuously. Can you see Donald Trump being either called in front of the investigatory committee or eventually charged for some form of wrongdoing in terms of what happened on january 6th and and they all sort

of dance around it leaving the impression that this is a possibility do you think given what you've witnessed so far and given your background in covering that town that that could ever happen that that trump would actually be forced to appear yeah i i don't see that i mean let's look at another parallel case in the state of new york on his taxes we we keep hearing that something is going to happen there as well and it may happen but that's years have been years in the making years and years we're in 2022 the u. Years and years. We're in 2022. The U.S. presidential election cycle begins the day after the congressional election cycle ends in November of this year. And that Supreme Court fight could go on for years.

So whether or not he has to actually provide documents, let alone be compelled to appear. So, and let's remember, too, that every time he seems to lose something, or we think he loses something, he's actually aggrandized. A lot of people watching the events that day thought that it was going to be the end of Trumpism. In many ways, it gave him new life. It sort of solidified his status with true believers who are mobilized, organized, and moneyed, and now control the oxygen of U.S. politics, which is money. And without money, you won't be able to get elected, and you will not get that money if you're a Republican in the United States now and you don't support Trump and you don't support the notion of the big steal slash big lie.

Well, I guess the only thing you can if you're one who believes that, in fact, Trump caused what happened on January 6th and he did, in fact, try to overthrow the election. If you if you believe that and feel he should be paying a penalty for it but is about to get away with it the one thing you can remember is that through 1972 and 1973 a lot of a lot of people thought there was no way they could ever nail richard nixon for watergate which was like peanuts compared with what what the charge is on this one. But they got him. And he was forced to resign. And when you think about it, Peter, Richard Nixon tried to create favorable conditions for an election.

Donald Trump is the only president in the history of the United States who was trying to undermine the very notion of a democratic election. Huge difference in the two accusations sure well we'll see how history plays out on uh on this one but there's a a lot of frustrated people watching this from both sides i guess uh play out because it it eats up an enormous amount of time on on american media but it doesn't actually seem to be going anywhere, at least at the moment. That may change. I guess we'll see.

Rob, always great to talk to you. Thanks for this. My pleasure, Peter. Rob Russo joining us again, as he did through much of the election campaign last year. And I always like to listen to Rob because he brings that kind of context of the past and the historical events that kind of play into this story as well

and reminds us of those. Here's one last thing to remind you of on this issue. I mean, you saw the pictures of the storming of the Capitol building, the hundreds, thousands of people who were involved in that. So Politico decided, you know what? Let's find out of those people who were storming that building, how many of them have actually decided to run for public office. It's interesting. Politico writes, it's difficult to say with precision just how many of those who participated in the events of January 6th will be on the ballot in 2022. Rather than disqualifying them from public service, their participation appears to have served as a political springboard for dozens of Republicans who will be on the ballot this year for federal, state, and local offices.

And in many states, the filing deadlines are months away. Last year, 11 January 6 protesters were elected to offices ranging from state legislature to city council to school board. This year, more than 20 are running for federal, state, and local offices. Few of them express any contrition for their involvement in the attack. Extremism analysts say that far-right views are spreading in conservative places where the school board races, formerly non-controversial, have now spiraled into fights over mask mandates and how race is taught in school. In some areas, candidates who refuse

to send their own children in the school system have won school board positions. I don't know. Go figure. I can't. All right, that wraps her up for this day of, you know, a collection of different stories. And all of them, I think, interesting.

And all of them together, you could just place by your bedside at night and listen to the voice telling you these stories. And you will sleep the sleep of your life. Maybe that's what I should do on one of these podcasts is read a bedtime story. Read Peter Pan. Read Cinderella. But instead, I'll tell you that Bruce Anderson will be here tomorrow with

Smoke Mirrors and the Truth, and man, that'll put you to sleep, right? We always have a good time on SMT, as we call it. And we will tomorrow, even though I'm not sure exactly what the topic's going to be yet. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been The Bridge for this Tuesday. Thanks so much for listening.

I'll talk to you again in 24 hours.